Following discussion with our OPD Community Resource Officers, we believe sharing security camera footage after an incident may be an effective and immediate action we can take to improve safety. By being better witnesses to serious crime we can improve safety through collective awareness, foster a productive relationship with our police, and ultimately deter crime.
Please take the survey to share your opinion on a neighborhood camera registry!
Adams Point is seeking digital artists to help showcase the people, places, and wildlife of our neighborhood on new street pole banners along Grand Ave between Bay Pl and Macarthur Blvd.
The banners are 29″ wide, 49″ tall, double sided vinyl. Digital assets can be provided in vector or 300dpi raster format.
For further questions, or to submit concepts please email adamspointneighborhood@gmail.com with subject “Street Pole Banners”.
Join your Adams Point neighbors to help remove trash and beautiful a corner of our neighborhood. We’d love to see you this Saturday 4/22 from 10a – 2p at the top of the Lagunitas Ave Steps.
Supplies and tools are provided, just bring your own water and sturdy shoes.
Happy Earth Day!
Rain or Shine we will have our ADAMS POINT NEIGHBORHOOD GROUP ANNUAL HOLIDAY POTLUCK & LAWN BOWLING PARTY tomorrow, Thursday, December 8th, from 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm. Located @ Oakland Lawn Bowling Club at 660 Bellevue Avenue in Lake Merritt Park. CLICK THIS LINK TO RSVP.
– Tell your neighbors- Put up a poster in your building- Use QR code or Link to RSVP
See you tomorro
ADAMS POINT NEIGHBORHOOD GROUPANNUAL HOLIDAY POTLUCK PARTY& Lawn Bowling Party
Located @ Oakland Lawn Bowling Club
660 Bellevue Avenue in Lake Merritt Park
This Thursday, December 8th, 2022
6:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Meet and Greet your Adams Point Neighbors!
Learn to Lawn Bowl! Community Lesson available at 6:30 pm. RSVP Here.
BRING YOUR FAVORITE HOLIDAY SNACK TO SHARE
Cookies, Appetizers, Dessert Bites, Drinks
Hot Cocoa, Hot Cider, Coffee & Water Provided by APNG
FESTIVE ATTIRE & UGLY SWEATER CONTESTS with Prizes
Holiday Card & Wood Ornament Decorating for Kids & Young at Heart
and Karaoke!
Party Open to anyone with an interest in Adams Point. Please share info with neighbors.
$10 suggested donation to support APNG Event Expenses & Lawn Bowling Club Facilities
***Practice Covid Safety Guidelines – Stay Home If You Are Sick***
You can follow the Trash Falcons at their Facebook page, and join them every Sunday 9am at 400 Perkins St!
Download here (right click and save):
https://adamspointneighbors.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Adams-Point-Crime-Maps-2021.pdf
| Dear District 3 residents, businesses, and organizations, I will be hosting a town hall this Saturday from 9-11am in order to hear your thoughts about the proposed Howard Terminal Project! For months, we have heard from D3 constituents about the ways in which this development will impact the kind of city they want to live in. We would like to give one more opportunity for the district to gather and share thoughts before the Council votes on July 20th. The town hall will be in-person at Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church, 1188 12th Street Oakland, between Magnolia and Adeline. We will be practicing social distancing, and masks will be required. Priority will be placed on affected District 3 residents. Please bring a piece of mail with your name and D3 address to be placed on the comment list. Please join us and tell us what you think! You can RSVP at this link, but it is not necessary in order to attend. Hope to see you there! In Solidarity, Carroll Fife |
The future looks uncertain for Oakland’s First Fridays, the lively arts and community festival that draws about 30,000 to Telegraph Avenue every month. While the event is best known for its support of local artists, it’s also important for up-and-coming food vendors — especially people of color.
First Fridays, which has been on pause since the pandemic began, is facing two major roadblocks: new police fees and new protected bike lanes.
The Oakland Police Department is now charging the festival $24,000 to send 45 officers to each event, as first reported by KQED. Shari Godinez, executive director of the Koreatown Northgate Community Benefit District, said she’s never had to pay police fees in her nonprofit’s seven years of running First Fridays — and she can’t afford it. The Oakland Police Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, the city placed plastic barriers along Telegraph Avenue’s bike lanes during the pandemic. These new barriers cut the festival’s footprint in half, Godinez said. The Oakland City Council is voting Tuesday whether to install permanent barriers along the bike lanes. The nonprofit has been fighting the new bike lanes not just for the sake of First Fridays but because of safety concerns. A Change.org petition argues that it can be difficult for drivers to see bike lane traffic past parked cars. Bike advocacy group Bike East Bay disagrees,arguing these protected bike lanes are the safest option.
“We’re already running at a loss for this festival,” Godinez said. “This could make it so this festival can’t continue to happen.”
Food vendors who depended on First Fridays say they’re heartbroken the festival couldn’t come back as hoped this July — and they’re worried about future editions.
“That’s where I started my business. That’s where I learned to be a food vendor,” said Mierra Marah, who runs Afro-Caribbean caterer Mi Granny’s Kitchen and sold at First Fridays for five years. “With COVID, it’s very hard for me to make a living because that was the moneymaker for me.”
For vendors who typically bounce around among festivals, First Fridays was an unusually consistent gig. “The sales were very good. It was an event where I could go and know it’d be amazing,” said Kemi Tijaniqudus, whose West African stand Jollof Kitchen stood at First Fridays for three years.
The festival started organically in 2006, with neighborhood galleries advertising a monthly art walk and crowds of people taking over the streets. It has turned into one of Oakland’s most prominent cultural events, with the business district nonprofit taking it over seven years ago.
Organizers intentionally sought out a diverse mix of food vendors and made fees as low as possible in the community spirit, Godinez said. Depending on the month, 30 to 50 food vendors would work the festival. According to a 2017 survey, 81% of First Fridays vendors identified as people of color.
Some vendors who got their start at First Fridays went on to open full-on restaurants, such as Javi’s Cooking, which operates an Argentinian empanada shop in West Oakland, and Hotbird, which draws lines to San Francisco’s Twitter building for spicy chicken sandwiches.
If the City Council votes to make the barriers permanent Tuesday, Godinez said, her nonprofit will apply to make First Fridays extend much further down Telegraph in an attempt to cover the costs of the street closure and staffing.
As for the police fees, Godinez said she’s meeting with city officials in the hope of figuring out a solution — the nonprofit already pays for private security. In the past, safety issues typically arose hours after the First Fridays festival shut down but crowds continued to mill around, such as a shooting that injured six people in 2018.
“I feel like First Fridays got blamed for a lot of stuff happening in Oakland,” Marah said. “It’s very disappointing to me and other vendors who really loved doing that event.”
Janelle Bitker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: janelle.bitker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @janellebitker